CHAPTER FOUR
Joseph Radley
 Joseph Radley's was unquestionably the key headship of the nineteenth
century. When he and Mary Radley came to Lisburn in 1874, the buildings were
old and cramped, the farm was losing money, the number of pupils had been
kept small for fear of losing yet more money, and most of them left before
they were fourteen. From every point of view the school was weak and
struggling -how could it have been otherwise when at least twenty-four
masters had come and gone between 1828 and 1874 ? (Bootham School had two
heads during that time). For neither the first nor the last time, Ulster
Quarterly Meeting for March 1875 was uneasy about both Brookfield and Ulster
Provincial School. It appointed a committee to look into `the whole subject'
of the two institutions. Perhaps surprisingly, it recommended that both
schools be continued.
Twenty-five years later there was a very different story to tell. The
buildings had been transformed, numbers were high, and the pupils were
taking public examinations. The change, as many knew and testified, was the
work of the Radleys. Their care of the family was such that those still at
school celebrated their master's birthday by decorating his breakfast table
with flowers and going on a picnic with him later in the day ; those who had
left founded in 1888 the Old Scholars' Association. Even Friends who had
little interest in Prospect Hill must have been aware of the importance of
the headmaster, for the reports to Ulster Quarterly Meeting now contained
his assessment of academic progress, and in 1895 his illness caused him to
be mentioned by name, a rare distinction indeed for any master unless he had
just arrived. And after his retirement in 1899 the Committee of Management
praised him, as well as itself, in these words:
Joseph and Mary E. Radley occupied their respective positions with much
acceptance for the long period of twenty-five years, during which period,
owing to their efforts and those of the committee, the School made very
marked progress in many respects.
Joseph Radley, the `Annual Monitor' for 1904 tells us, was the third son of
a large family. There being little money at home, he had his own way to make
in the world. As a boy he went to an Infant School founded by a Quaker, then
to a Lancasterian School which he always praised for having given him a
basic education, and, in 1847, to Croydon School, where, at the age of
fifteen, he was apprenticed to its well-known Superintendent, John Sharp.
From him he learned much until, in accordance with established Quaker
practice where there were clever children of Friends in modest circumstances, he continued his training as a teacher at the Flounders
Institute and at Bootham School in York. In 1861 he returned to Croydon,
having married Phebe Jane Bentley, the daughter of an Ipswich Quaker family.
Seven years later she died leaving him with three sons. For a time he went
on teaching at Croydon, but his friends persuaded him that a complete change
was essential for his general well-being. So for a few months he tried a new
occupation and worked as an accountant with a brother, an experience which
served mainly to show that it was teaching which gave him the fullest
satisfaction. He therefore returned to his first career, taught for five
years at Wigton School in Cumberland, and towards the end of his time there
married Mary E. Robinson of Pardshaw. Within a few months they and the three
boys came to Lisburn where Joseph Radley entered upon what may be said to
have been his life's work at Ulster Provincial School.
Difficulties
The twenty-five years are well documented. In addition to the proceedings of
Ulster Quarterly Meeting and its specially appointed Education Committee
(1875), there are the printed annual reports of school societies and,
eventually, of the Old Scholars' Association which grew out of those
societies. And there is also the Headmaster's official letter book which
contains copies of just over 1,000 letters (they are numbered and the
figures in the following paragraphs indicate the letters referred to). They
were sent to a great variety of people, most of whom were Quakers and
members of the School Committee, and they record vividly Joseph Radley's
day-to-day struggles with the many problems involved in running a boarding
school. They enable us, as it were, to look at this part of the school's
history from the Headmaster's study. It is a strange and sad experience,
standing alongside this well-loved teacher and observing some of his many
battles.
Less than three years after his appointment, Joseph Radlcy was counselling
Friends to keep `low and watchful respecting the sad spirit of division'
amongst them (159), and was protesting about the 'fault-finding and
misrepresentation to which we have been so long subjected' (182). By the
time thirteen years had gone by he learned to speak less guardedly
Now the Committee can help or not . . . [and] the new Committee have passed
a new rule without consulting me or Mary Radley . . . [Also] I have been
strongly criticised for having a class of goods from a firm recommended by
Jo. Richardson and am at once to obtain a lower class of goods ... What most
of all would be welcome would be the unmistakable strengthening of our hand
by the Committee. Is there ground for Mary E. Radley's feeling, and mine
too, that the intended rule means a lack of confidence on the part of
Friends ?
It was not only the Headmaster and his wife who suffered from these constant
interferences and recriminations. Sometimes the whole staff was involved
with the Governors. Towards the end of Joseph Radley's headship, there was
much discontent among the teachers about the food. There must, the staff
decided, be a formal complaint, a thing unimaginable in those days. Dare
they take such a step ? And if so, how ? After discussion, they all signed a
letter to the Committee and then chose one of their number to deliver it -
the mild, well-liked and well-connected Isaac Swain who later became a
Professor and whose paintings hang in the Reception Room to this day. `Make
it clear' they told him, `that it is from all of us'. After all, was not
Isaac a Quaker as well as a very likeable fellow ? His Quaker connections
did him no good on this occasion. The blatant temerity of the whole affair
so scandalised the Committee that it promptly dismissed young Isaac. Of
Joseph Radley's reaction to this there is no record. As for Isaac, according
to his younger brother Charles when he was recalling the event in the late
1960's, he felt to the end that he had been unfairly treated.
So was Joseph Radley. His letter book gives the strong impression that some
of the Committee looked on him as of no great account - as a mere
schoolmaster who, for one reason or another, had not got on in the world.
True, he was superintendent of Ulster Provincial School, but it was they,
the Committee, who would direct the establishment. They therefore excluded
him from their meetings and often communicated their decisions, not by
speaking to him, but by letting him `gather the meaning' of the minutes. On
the occasions when he misunderstood them (though he had read over the minute
`very carefully and more than once'), it was his fault not theirs, and
merited yet another of the continual apologies he had to offer down the
years (495). It was the Committee who admitted children (606), who appointed
and dismissed staff, who decided the colour of the paint, and who chose the
room in which an examination could be held (393). And it must, as we have
seen, be the whole Committee, not a sub-Committee, whose ruling was liable
to be deplored or overruled.
`How can a Superintendent of a school do anything if he is set aside in such
little matters of detail ?' Joseph Radley asked in 1878, when Joseph
Richardson of Springfield, Lisburn, his most determined opponent on the
Committee, was insisting that paint be put directly on the glass in order to
save the cost of cheap Holland blinds-'I must be frank with thee and say
that thy insistence is humiliating . . .' (250). The vigour of the
remonstrance made no difference to Joseph Richardson's hostility, which
continued unrelenting. Thirteen years later, in 1891, Edwin Squire
complained in the course of a hard exchange with the superintendent that
Joseph Richardson was uncivil to him. `If', replied Joseph Radley, 'Jos
Richardson still refuses to treat thee kindly (as he does me) it is not my
fault'. (1002). No, indeed, but the evidence of Joseph Radley's letters is
overwhelming in its impression of prolonged bickering-to use no stronger
word-between Quakers themselves, never mind the Committee.
At this distance in time only the outlines of the major quarrels remain
discernible. William Turtle's son was refused admission in 1878 -I am',
wrote Joseph Radley, `not answerable for the conclusions of the Committee
but I believe that they have the real prosperity of the school at heart'
(291) ; a young teacher, F. Sutton, left the school without warning and
`made the most damaging statements about the school', statements which
grievously divided the Committee and Friends in general, and in which Joseph
Richardson had `perfect confidence' (660) ; James Hobson and his wife
circulated `hurtful' reports that the children at Prospect Hill spent their
time `chiefly in the reading of novels' (597) ; Eliza Jane Richardson,
redoubtable wife of the redoubtable Joseph, consistently treated Mary E.
Radley like a hired servant and was particularly careful not to consult her,
or even speak to her, when it was a question of planning the redecoration of
the Radleys' apartments (241) or of making new rules about the children's
diet for which Mary Radley was daily responsible (707) - I perhaps', Joseph
Radley wrote to her after one of her upbraidings, `I look too much for
sympathy and approval. I certainly feel the want of it'. (707). Robert
Fisher was asked, with the sub-committee's approval, to leave the school,
whereupon the full committee and many Friends fell to bitter disagreement
(992) ; the wood for the Natural History Cabinet in the entrance hall cost
more than the sanctioned amount, and even though Joseph Radley had pleaded
for it for many years, his wishes were first ignored and then obstructed
(846) ; and the question of whether or not to teach music was for years
debated with fierce acrimony. And these are only a selection of the school's
troubles. The others are less well documented and it would be both difficult
and tedious to piece them together.
Part of the difficulty was that the School Committee had to ensure that the
school paid its way. Accordingly, it began its annual reports with fairly
detailed financial statements. Joseph Radley, too, was aware of this aspect
of things, but his work was with human beings, not with money, and in this
field the Committee's outlook was necessarily more limited than their
superintendent's. The report for 1890 puts the matter in this way
Of the children in the school thirty are not members of our Society, but it
may be interesting to Friends to know that of these there arc nine whose
parents were in membership and two others are immediate descendants of
Friends, so that we may reasonably entertain a hope that some of these may,
from the influence of the teaching, both in the school and in our religious
meetings, be drawn into closer unity and fellowship with us . . .
The Committee, it may be seen, hoped that by managing the school they would
make more and better Quakers. Joseph Radley may have had similar hopes, but
his main concern was with the individual pupil. A school, particularly a
boarding school, teaches children to live together-it is neither a
profit-making institution nor a means of increasing church membership, and
the quality of living practised in it is its own justification, an end in
itself, not a means to something else.
It should be remembered, too, that the Committee were children of their age.
As Victorian businessmen and gentlemen they were much occupied with success
and propriety, as well as with rectitude and charity. Indeed, many of them
seem to have thought of the school as a charity ; they certainly gave it a
good deal of money. For the `innocent people of God' who had once stood,
weak but fearless, against the earthly authority of Cromwell and Charles II,
had now added wealth and power to their election to the service of God. The
characteristics of these `weighty' Ulster Friends are vividly recorded in
the illustrations to James N. Richardson's `The Quakri at Lurgan and Grange'
out of whose pages gaze loftily the virtues hymned by Samuel Smiles -
clear-sightedness, noble thinking, high endeavour, hard work, and sometimes
even dignified fun. And informing these virtues is the unshakeable
nineteenth-century Protestant pride of men and women who, having set no
wicked thing before their eyes, believe that, in the words of the Psalmist,
light and gladness are the reward of the righteous.
A story, no doubt apocryphal, supplies a commentary on the strengths and
weaknesses of late nineteenth century Ulster Quakerism. The leading lady of
an established and wealthy Quaker family sent out invitations to what we
call afternoon tea, though the card announced enigmatically `a drawing-room
gathering'. With mingled curiosity and awe the other local ladies
`gathered'. `We will begin', said the Quaker hostess, `with a reading from
Scripture'. It was lengthy and was followed by a pause. Then, `Let us pray',
said the hostess and knelt down, arranging her plain silk tastefully about
her. `O Lord', she began, `we are but filthy rags in Thy sight . . .' The
prayer, too, was long. After it, tea was announced. `Thank you', said one
local lady, who had found the whole thing too much for her, `we shall not be
requiring any', and she took her daughters from the room, to say indignantly
outside : `If God calls me a filthy rag, I suppose I must bear it ; but I
will not bear it from a Quaker'.
Why, then, did Joseph Radley bear for so long the unkindnesses meted out to
him ? Why did he not, like the lady of the above story, get up and leave ?
Mary Radley must have longed to be back in her native Cumberland, and they
must surely have discussed moving more than once, for though the
Headmaster's letter book offers no evidence that he ever sought a different
job, correspondence on such a subject would hardly appear there. Several
reasons suggest themselves - Joseph's lack of a degree and of worldly
substance must have made moving difficult, and he clearly became fonder of
the school as it became his life's work. Not that he was altogether
blameless on his side. These personal antipathies, which exist in all walks
of life, are never the fault of only one party, and it is particularly hard
for headmasters to avoid pompous self-importance. Yet these words are not
easily applied to one who told Edwin Squire that he was dis appointed that
after a sharp difference they had not been in touch
with each other-'if thy brother has transgressed against thee, go and tell
him' (1002). The same spirit was shown on occasions even towards Joseph
Richard son (637, 679). And when difficulties occurred between the
Headmaster of Brookfield and himself, Joseph Radley wrote `suggesting a way-
of mending our relations', through a committee of `impartial Friends', if
that seemed the best way (677).
Nearly one hundred years later, Joseph Radle's troubles, trying and
long-continuing as they were, are of no great' importance in the history of
the school. Other, far better-known Heads had similar difficulties- Samuel
Butler of Shrewsbury or James Prince Lee of King Edward School, Birmingham,
for example. We can simply be grateful that Joseph Radley was tough enough
to survive the opposition to him. It is not too much to say that under his
guidance the school found its identity as a small, semi-rural community in
which children were helped to practise those Quaker virtues likely to make
them decent men and women, and to learn enough practical skill and book
knowledge to get them jobs when they were old enough.
Early years : re-building
It was a struggling school to which Joseph Radley came in 1874. A glance at
its inadequate and untidy buildings indicated its extreme financial
insecurity. In some ways, it must hardly have seemed a school at all.
But Joseph Radley knew what he wanted and had the ability to spur others
into action. Within a few months of his arrival Ulster Quarterly Meeting was
much taken up with the standing and future of the two schools in its care :
Brookfield and Ulster Provincial School. A committee was appointed. It
recommended that the prevailing `very erroneous impressions' be corrected,
and that in the case of U.P.S., `Friends generally should be made aware that
to maintain the school, a large annual subscription is necessary to
supplement the Endowment, which otherwise would be altogether inadequate'.
Quarterly Meeting was also told that `in order to increase the usefulness of
both schools, a certain Standard of Education be required for each child for
entry'. As minute 11 of a meeting held 4.5.1875 put it : `it is intended to
give a superior or improved Education, more adequate to the wants of the
Province, in the Provincial School'. For the first time perhaps since the
school's foundation under John Gough, it was to have a purpose which was
defined in educational as well as Quaker terms. For one hundred vears it had
been mainly a place to train in their own faith the children of members of
the Society of Friends. It still had this aim ; but it added a further one,
to provide the kind of secular instruction given by other schools which also
had religious intentions - such as, say, the recently founded Methodist
College in Belfast (1868).
Joseph Radley persuaded Friends to look at the whole problem. A deputation
visited Richard Wallace's Agent to see if it were possible to secure `an
absolute title in perpetuity to land at Prospect Hill'; the grounds were
tidied up ; the wall between the boys' and girls' 63playgrounds was taken
down ; and a building appeal was launched. It quoted the findings of John
Newby of Ackworth after his recent inspection
Part of the present building is damp and very dismal, and under the level of
the ground. The boys' lodging space is insufficient and scattered, by the
temporary occupation of spare rooms. The teachers, as well as
Superintendents, have no private sitting rooms or study. The boys have no
covered playshed in wet weather ; and the girls' play-room is an annoyance
to all the internal departments.
It was proposed to add classrooms, bedrooms, play space, a new kitchen and
dining room, private rooms for the Superintendent's famliy, and private
bedrooms for every teacher - all for `nearly double' the present fifty-four
boarding pupils at a cost of `about �5,000'.
Before long the cost of rebuilding and extending had gone up to �7,000, and
by the middle of 1876 �3,421 had been promised for the appeal fund. Some of
the amounts were `conditional on �5,000 being raised'. In July 1876 the
Quarterly Meeting Education Committee `directed' that Joseph Radley `proceed
to England ... to collect subscriptions and interest Friends on behalf of
the school'. He spent ten days visiting Newcastle, Darlington, Sunderland
and York, but the financial result was meagre in the extreme - �7.10.6 and
one large amount promised, less expenses of �4.5.0.
Joseph C. Marsh, meanwhile, was to prepare detailed drawings. Before the end
of the year he was being asked to `modify the plan by the omission of the
Basement (and otherwise as may be found necessary) so as to bring the
probable cost down to within �4,000'. The building sub-committee now met
frequently, the plans went out to tender, and in April 1877 the contract was
awarded to Dixon & Co. at an agreed total cost of �3,790.14.10.
For the next three years the school suffered the dirt and disruption that
attend all building operations. The Building Committee's Minutes (from which
almost all these facts are taken) reveal something of the story to those
prepared to read between the lines ; Joseph Radley's letter-book is much
more explicit. There is no need to list the long succession of troubles.
Fortunately he was tough, and on the whole most of the Committee supported
him sensibly and with foresight. The most serious problem was that
investigation often revealed the dangerous condition of parts of the
building that it had been intended to leave. `It is proposed', runs a minute
of a meeting held in November 1877, `to rebuild the front block of the Old
Buildings instead of repairing it as heretofore intended . . . it is evident
that such rebuilding is almost a matter of necessity'. The result was the
front hall, the headmaster's study and the Reception Room, `Middle House' as
they have been known from the 1930's, though until the Second World War the
Reception Room was the Headmaster's private sittingroom. It is a dignified,
solidly-built frontage, linked with very different days.
The Quarterly Meeting was kept fully informed. It agreed to ,appropriate
�1,000 or �1,250 of schools funds for rebuilding the old centre block and
for furniture for the building generally in case the amount is not raised by
public subscription'. The old centre block, occupying the area of the
staff-room known to pupils under John Douglas and later, seems to have been
the original school of John Gough, and must have needed much attention. Like
any headmaster worth his salt, Joseph Radley kept continual pressure on his
committee : `Do not stop short of a full extension programme', he had
written in his very early days (33, also 26). In the outcome he had his way,
or most of it, though money remained a difficulty, as the minutes show. It
was decided, for example, to use the school outdoor staff as far as possible
for levelling the ground and tidying up. And there were frequent
modifications of the work-'many reductions in expense were suggested to the
architect', by a committee held in January 1878.
The burden of watching, in the school's interest, the conversion of plans
into buildings was borne by Joseph Radley. He did this so thoroughly that
both architect and builders were repeatedly subjected to serious and
detailed suggestions or complaints -about the shape of the new classroom and
its unsuitable desks (50), about the slate of the fireplace (214), the
plaster on the partitions between the boys' bedrooms (284), the glazing
(317), the keys (318), the quality of the bricks (396), and countless other
similar matters. Joseph Radley had a very practical mind (92) and
occasionally drew plans and diagrams in explanation of his suggestions (39 ;
186). The most interesting to us are his sketch plans of the school
buildings before and after the reconstruction and additions (303, / 304). He
received little thanks for all his work. In 1879, when the builder had gone,
leaving behind a good deal of rubble and a still struggling school, Joseph
Radley wrote feelingly to the School Treasurer
I am expressly forbid, not by a minute, but by a member of the Committee, to
charge labour to the building fund. Most Friends will never know the labour
that has been incurred in clearing up - the improvements in front of and
behind the school. . . . Now, a number of Friends, including women, who do
not allow me to justify myself, censure me. . . . I get things done very
cheaply and get no thanks. . . . Please try to remove the misunderstanding.
(374, 375).
For a number of years after this the school buildings remained unaltered,
until in the late 1880's the Committee began to consider once again the
provision of more modern amenities. This is the way with any school ; the
latest extension is no sooner finished than the next one has to be
envisaged, and it says much for Joseph Radley's energy that he was not
content to rest on the laurels of his first considerable building
achievement.
In 1886 Joseph Richardson wanted to make an upper storey in
the laundry (558), perhaps because he knew the idea annoyed the
Headmaster who had other, more ambitious plans. The ambitious plans were
eventually agreed and a Minute of Ulster Quarterly Meeting for March 1891
reads
The necessity for a new dining room, and a covered Playground and New
Workshop for the boys . . . has been largely spoken to, and the Committee is
encouraged to endeavour to raise the necessary money to carry out these
requisite improvements".
The start was delayed until enough money was available and the familiar
round of money-raising, planning, and building began all over again. Early
in 1892 Joseph Radley put his name to a new appeal which began by pointing
out that the "last zealous effort" of fifteen years ago now needed
repeating, particularly as it was intended to provide in addition to the
Dining-Room, Workshop and playground first intended, a Laboratory, a Science
Class-Room and new Dormitory accommodation. It was all accomplished by the
end of 1893, and though no doubt the usual dirt and difficulty made the
re-building tiresome, it seems to have been a good deal easier than during
the earlier work in the late 1870's. The result was the back of the school
so well-known for the greater part of the twentieth century - the Dining
Room, the Old Chemistry Lab., the little room on the Magheralave Road side
of it (for a long time a workshop) and the boys' lower dormitory above
these. The old gym was at first the covered playground.
In many of those whose schooling took place in these eventually dirty and
inadequate rooms, an affectionate nostalgia is evoked by their mere mention.
Visiting Old Scholars in the 1950's and 60's who had been at school before
the 1914-18 War, would look at the Lower Dormitory; smile ruefully and say :
"It is exactly the same". One American visitor on her first visit to the
school in 1966 was shocked at the starkness of the arrangements. But the
pupils of the time, though not without their grumbles, would not have
understood her dismay. When, a little earlier, a well-meaning Governor who
was inspecting this old part of the building prior to the making of
arrangements for its demolition and replacement, said to a senior boy who
was near : "You must be glad we are going to make all this new for you", she
was astonished at the resentment of his reply : "No, I like it like this.
You've no right to change it". It was simply his way of expressing his
loyalty to what was his school.
As the 1890's brought to a close both the century and Joseph Radley's
twenty-five years' headship, new building work still went on. In 1894, �100
left by John Greer was used to carry out "some absolutely needful Sanitary
Improvements on the Girls' portion of the premises and at the Cottage
belonging to the school". Discussion began about the possibility of a
swimming bath. Forster Green, the tea merchant, who had already made a
number of generous gifts to the school, was keenly interested. These were
the days when the music battle greatly occupied Ulster Friends-was it
Quaker, was it
Christian for Ulster Provincial School to teach its pupils music ?
Forster Green was firmly persuaded that it was not. A piano was taken into
the building for pupils to practise on. On the instant Forster Green's
support for the swimming bath ceased. "I intend", he announced, "to provide
such a pool for Newton, where the Lord's way is adhered to". And he did. But
the enthusiasm already aroused in Lisburn was enough to keep the Northern
project alive and old scholars were active in collecting money. Then Newtown
got a piano. Forster Green was appalled. Could ingratitude be baser ?
Baffled, he made a generous subscription to the Lisburn swimming bath after
all, and it was opened in 1899, the same pool used by the pupils ever since.
It gave special pleasure to Joseph Radley, who had long been interested in
life-saving, bad attended public meetings in the town to popularise the
cause, and had been given a medal to mark the value of his work which had
proved `the means of saving the lives of two of his pupils'.
He retired from a building very different from the one he had come to
-bigger and much more suitable for a school. Yet during the whole of his
twenty-five years Joseph Radley had little help in looking after the
property, just an odd-job man. In 1879 his duties were listed as follows :
knives, shoes, cleaning, pumping, coal, mats, knife house, garden and
windows (443 When Peter Pelan left in 1883 Joseph Radley gave him the
following testimonial, which brings nearer to us the different school of
almost a hundred years ago
Peter Pelan leaves the place of his own accord having rendered good and
efficient service for about ten months. We consider him thoroughly reliable,
willing, respectful, and attentive. Much of his time was spent on routine
work about the house, but he did some higher work. He will be missed by the
pupils whom he drilled. (489).
It is a perceptive last sentence. Joseph Radley could see the school from
the pupils' side and he knew the importance to them of a man like Peter
Pelan who was less distant than the teaching staff, though still able to
command respect and affection.
The Curriculum
In determining the subjects and standard of class teaching at Lisburn, he
naturally based his ideas on his experience in the schools he had already
taught in. He continued the established practice of having a Governess for
the 8-10 year olds. In 1878 the "dailv governess" worked from 10.0 a.m.
until 4.0 or 4.30 p.m. and gave instruction in Reading, Writing, Mental
Calculation, English History (not Irish history be it noted), Geography and
Needlework She received little more than �3.10.0 a month but took her meals
with "the family". Once out of her care, children learned new subjects. As
everywhere, English and Arithmetic were the basis of the curriculum, though
Joseph Radlev was keen to add languages and science for the more able. For
June 1877 he listed the following lessons :
"five children", he reported, "learn French and Latin, four Greek" (73).
This, he claimed two years later, "is in advance of York and equal to the
Flounders Institute. H. W. Unthank passed in the Honours List in London
matriculation. We also teach Chemistry, Magnetism, Physiology, and Drawing.
. . . I great question [he adds, with understandable pride] whether the
young people in any of our schools have much advantages greater for study
than those which present themselves here" (372/3). If the words suggest
undue satisfaction it should be remembered that they were written to the
difficult W. F. Davidson, the Head of the local and rival school at
Brookfield, and that, in another mood, Joseph Radley could write
differently. "You must not expect [your son] to be as outstanding here as at
Newry Model"-he told a parent. "Our boys are very different metal to contend
against. It was the same with Alfred Pearson [from Lisburn] at York. To be
third boy here is not to be third boy at York" (192). During the 1890's
there were some eighty children in four classes, boys and girls together.
The girls did not take as many academic subjects as the boys, all of whom
took Latin, half French. Everyone did art and music. We are, said Joseph
Radley, similar to Sidcot, but smaller (869-872).
Although Joseph Radley held the traditional Quaker testimony against
competition -`the whole prize system has its drawbacks', he told Edwin
Squire in 1890 (904) -he aimed from the first to enter as many pupils as
possible for public examinations. There were two main reasons for this.
First, it was essential for the school to offer its pupils what the other
schools did, at a time when the examination system was getting firmly
established as the hallmark of a sound education. Secondly, schools were
paid by results and there was no doubt that Friends School, Lisburn, needed
money (294). When, therefore, in 1878 the Intermediate Education Act was
passed, the school applied for aid under the new arrangements (301, 308).
The following year fourteen boys and one girl were entered for the
Intermediate Examination, though Joseph Radley found the forms troublesome
to fill in, and the Committee unwilling to allow him to arrange a room for
it to be held in - they must make the arrangements themselves (387, 388,
393). Indeed, the Committee discussed the whole business of the Intermediate
Examination in Joseph Radley's absence and without consulting him, and
apparently decided that for a time scholars should not be entered for it
(493, 4, 5). This explains why for a number of years money was not received
from Dublin. It was not until January 1888 that Joseph Radley could write :
"I note with much pleasure that the Science and Art Department will not
after this year withhold payments for success by students of this school in
examinations" (636).
As a further indication of the school's intention to keep in the public
examination field, it had an annual visit from a member of Queen's College,
Belfast, whose subsequent report was placed before Ulster Quarterly Meeting.
Thus, in 1889, Elias H. Bell, Clerk of the School Committee, recorded that :
S. J. McMullan, M.A., expresses much satisfaction (after an interval of
ten years from a similar examination) with the completeness of the
educational arrangements. He finds a fully qualified Staff, apparently
animated by enthusiasm for their work, and considers there is evidence that
the children appreciate the advantages offered them. He is especially
gratified by the prominence given to Scripture teaching, and notes the
success with which reading and writing are taught throughout the School. The
Arithmetic, and the mathematics of the upper section were commended ; he
considers that Latin, French, and English Grammar are fairly taught, and
that English History and Geography are taken up by pupils with industry and
intelligence. The Science Examination in Animal Physiology was considered
very satisfactory. The Carpentry and WoodCarving done by the boys were noted
with much interest, and the teaching of them commended, as calculated to
produce an all round handiness. The Needlework of the girls was also much
commended.
A year later, according to the school report
Examinations in Science and Art were held in the School, and twenty
certificates were obtained-viz., six in Drawing (2nd grade), five in
Geology, five in Inorganic Chemistry, and four in Mathematics. The classes
in all these subjects except Geology have been continued, instead of which
Magnetism and Electricity have been substituted. Much interest is evinced on
the part + of the children in all these branches of study. A course of
lectures was also given by the Superintendent on Astronomy during the
autumn. A course was also given by one of the Teachers on Temperance
Physiology to about forty of the children, most of whom have entered the
Band of Hope Union examinations on this important subject. The same teacher
is also giving instructions in Pitman's system of Shorthand with
satisfactory results.
The introduction of Music
When Joseph Radley came to Lisburn in 1874 no kind of music was allowed in
the school. Yet he was convinced that the practice and enjoyment of it could
be part of the full Christian life, even in a sect whose founder had either
ignored or deplored all art forms. Many in the Society thought otherwise and
the result was civil war within it. It seems sad to those who live one
hundred years later, and in a way it is, being a reflection of a narrow and
negative religious outlook. On the other hand, it all seemed of desperate
importance at the time. To many excellent men and women, the threat to the
school of pianos and singing was an issue in which Satan himself was
involved.
Joseph Radley understood this and the evidence suggests that he respected
the sincerity of his opponents. At least he did not reduce
the debate to the level of personalities. What was at stake was really the
question of whether or not the school was to stay in the nineteenth century
indefinitely, and about this J.R. had no doubts. His conviction was so
strong that he held his ground without wavering until at last he won the
day. The effort, commented his daughter many years after the event, almost
closed the school. She was not overdramatising. And it is important for us
to remember that if accounts of his later, quieter years, considered
alongside his benevolently bearded picture which long hung in the school
corridor, prompt in us a mildly sentimental image of a gentle if wise
headmaster, this is far from the truth. Only a tough inflexibility could
have invited, and emerged victorious from, this prolonged battle.
He began pressing for music soon after his appointment, but had for many
years to be content with sending pupils outside into the town for lessons.
Some Friends like William J. Turtle supported him strongly, and by the end
of 1878 a number of applications had been received from parents who wished
to have their children taught music within the school. On the other hand,
one child was withdrawn in protest against the Headmaster's policy (334).
Since the Committee was divided, it was unable to allow the premises to be
used for any type of music lessons, Quaker policy being then, as it is now,
to maintain the status quo in default of unanimity. For many years the stern
opposition of the powerful Charles Wakefield and Forster Green prevented the
innovation. Financial considerations supported them too, for `five
well-behaved, well-paying Munster children' were sent to Lisburn, instead of
to Mountmellick, on condition that music was not taught in the school. Even
so, Joseph Radley never doubted that his cause would eventually triumph.
`The Committee', he reported to an enquirer in 1889, `do not see their way
to provide pianos for the children. I have no doubt they will in time'
(777)-a prediction repeated two months later to a Friend who drew the
Headmaster's attention to the fact that her piano-playing daughter was
prepared to give music lessons in the school (798).
A music committee was now formed, as the opposition, though strong, was
powerless to prevent an increasing number of Friends from supporting the
Headmaster. By the end of 1889, after Joseph Radley had written to other
Quaker schools for a report on their policy in this subject, there was
actually talk of selecting pianos for the eight boys and ten girls who
wished to learn to play (803, 806, 808). His old enemies, led by Eliza Jane
Richardson, began their last fierce sally on behalf of the purity of
religion. Ultimately, the matter was a Quarterly Meeting affair, not even
the School Committee having the power to act without the parent body's
approval. But the Committee was at last willing to approve that music be
taught on Prospect Hill. It was this knowledge that made Eliza Jane
Richardson so active. Quarterly Meeting became a battleground, and twice
prevented piano lessons from being given within the school, once after a
recommendation sent to it by the Committee behind the Headmaster's back
(822). A fairly frivolous account of the wrangling
can be read in James N. Richardson's mock-heroic trifle `The Quakri at
Lurgan and Grange', though the lightness of touch does not altogether hide
the desperation of the struggle.
But Joseph Radley had had too many years of dealings with his Committee to
be deflected from his goal by manoeuvrings or threats. He was not without a
trick or two himself, either. So he sat quietly throughout Quarterly Meeting
while Friend rose and venomously attacked Friend, until at length he was
called on to speak. He argued very simply. The existing system of letting
boys and girls go into town `promiscuously' had obvious dangers In any case,
hymns used to be sung at the school until live years ago a Friend had
threatened to withdraw his subscription if the singing continued. `I was
then', said Joseph Radley, `allowed to use my own judgment'. It was only
right, he thought, to admit openly in the Quarterly Meeting that he thought
hymns `helpful'. So, he surmised, did some of his hearers, whose Meeting
Houses possessed pianos while the school was denied them, a most
inconsistent proceeding (an obvious reference to Brookfield). Why not let
Lisburn have music on the Ackworth scheme by which those given piano lessons
in school practised only scales and hymns ? (822/3). It was an argument well
suited to a religious gathering.
Early in 1890 Joseph Radley had his way, though the piano had to be
purchased by money raised by individual Friends and not out of school funds.
Some loaned the money at five per cent for two years, during which time the
piano was to remain the property of `those Friends who have advanced the
money as security for the repayment thereof' (833). All money and accounts
relating to music were strictly separate from other school funds. The
lessons were given in the boys' sick room (or infirmary, as it was then
called) (843). By the end of the year there were three pianos in the school,
twentyone pupils were having lessons, and their total fees amounted to
�39.10.0 (920). At first, the use of the pianos was strictly limited. When
W. A. Halliday approached Joseph Radley for the use of one for entertaining
on Old Scholars' Day, permission was refused -"I could not see my way to
anything beyond a hymn or two at the close and beginning" (852).
Problems
Although the admission of music was the most discussed change in school life
under Joseph Radley, it was only one aspect of the pressures of a new age.
The stern Puritanism which had so long characterised the School Committee
might take little account of the world and its fashions, but the school
itself was more influenced by them, as it still is. During the 1950's and
60's, for example, the music battle was fought all over again, this time
over dancing. Once again, the modernisers won, though it could be argued
that in an age when many schools are increasingly concerned with the
disciplining rather than the encouraging of permissiveness, the outcome was
not particularly significant. For though the more recent eventually
proves too strong for the old-fashioned, its triumph serves only to pose
other problems. Who is to say what is the wisest pace at which change should
be made ?
A most interesting illustration of this kind of dilemma concerned the
long-established annual entertainment at Hallowe'en. For long enough after
1900 it has taken the form of plays (and since Douglas Hill presented his
cup, of plays chosen and produced by the pupils themselves, if not at
Halloween then for St. Patrick's night). The first step towards this mainly
dramatic emphasis was taken, we now know, in 1889, when the pupils for the
first time presented a charade. Joseph Radley's memorandum after the event
runs as follows
Special Minute : Acting of Charade 1891.
A charade was acted 10 month 31st at Halloween in which the Teachers and a
number of the Boys and Girls took part. All acted the parts well and
heartily, at least so far as impersonation, mimicry etc. were concerned.
Whether the outcome of the occasion was really helpful to those concerned
and the children in particular, is, however, questionable. Considered in
view of the responsibilities incurred by those who undertake to conduct the
Education of the children at U. P. School, the following objections are
evident. The time, thought and attention given in preparation for some days
or weeks before being taken from ordinary daily duties constituted a serious
loss and disturbance of an unsettling character which indisposed for regular
and improving work.
The actual display was accompanied with a degree of excitement, not natural,
but of an intoxicating nature.
In acting there was evidenced the tendency (invariably noticeable) to give
prominence to the lower and coarser developments of life and manners.
Everything most in accordance with the unregenerate nature was welcomed, and
if this did not sink to `filthiness' yet `foolish' talking and jesting which
are not 'convenient' abounded usually, all being disfigured by the wearing
of dirt, lamp black etc. on the face and hands of those acting or, at least,
all being dressed out in rags and discarded dresses is a popular part of the
affair -and if not allowed is cause of regret or complaint.
Things were said and gestures and manners of acting adopted and were
applauded by the company that would at other times have brought down stern
disapproval from the teachers.
Some degree of ridicule for what is good and noble was noticeable : what was
low and base was applauded. To such a degree was this noticeable that
although I do not suppose any slight was meant for what was excellent, yet I
felt more humiliated at being in the room than I have done before at
Prospect Hill, excepting on one occasion, and that too was on a Hallowe'en
when. two of the older boys having had some licence allowed them took more
and came into the Dining Room as Nigger Clowns. (These two boys were so much
the worse for their licence that a few weeks after their names had to be
brought before the Committee.)
From the full reports in the Children's next monthly letter it was plain the
acting had taken a great hold upon them. One of the boys described the part
taken by one of the lady teachers as `very vulgar'. In one case I hear that
a boy who was present was much stimulated in a taste which is growing upon
him for theatrical attendance.
One of the teachers came to me before the evening performance and saying
that he did not feel unity with it asked to be excused being present. To
this I assented, telling him that if I did not feel that I ought to be
present I would have preferred being absent also.
A Lady, not a Friend, who has a relative in the school has since expressed
to me her sense of pain and surprise on hearing of my having consented to
the acting, and hinted that she saw an influence upon him in consequence
which had not been helpful.
These performances have been tactitly allowed and we have done the best, as
we have thought, to counteract undesirable results. But my own judgment and
sense of responsibility are entirely against their continuance that I have
inserted a memo. in my 1892 Diary for 10 mo 31st as follows
No acting of charades. JR willing to bear some expense in providing other
form of entertainment.
N.B. On the growing tendency to unite displays such as the above with Church
organisations and Religious Society work, see observations by Josiah W.
Leeds of Philadelphia in his work on `The Theatre'.
This period piece can be looked at in a number of ways : as the disapproval
of an ageing man in the face of modern trends ; or as the puritan's dislike
of plays ("we earnestly beseech our friends, and especially youths, to avoid
. . . play houses, those nurseries of debauchery and wickedness", runs a
London Yearly Meeting minute of 1739); or as the acting out in one man's
experience of the dilemma which faced Plato -was there a place for poets and
playwrights in a well-ordered society ? Plato thought not, though he was
contradicted by his pupil, Aristotle, who thought they contributed to the
general health of the body politic. It is a debate which, revived by the
sadistic violence of many films of the 1970's, will no doubt continue as
each new age re-states it in its own terms. Joseph Radley's `special
minute', apparently written for himself alone, is almost painfully honest ;
and there is something moving about the note in his 1892
Diary-he had little enough out of which to offer to `bear some expense'.
Joseph Radley was troubled, too, by the increasing interest his pupils were
showing in competitive games. In the summer of 1879 Louis O'Brien wrote
questioning the growing emphasis on athletic competition in the Open Day
races. Joseph Radley replied
Many Friends object to the excitement, some to the inequality, some to the
tendency to train our boys to look to sports of this class, a taste for
which will lead to attendance at public exhibitions and halls of diversion
and even to beget a taste for entering into such competitions. I agree. . .
. This year there is an excellent show for sport but Natural History,
Drawing and Workshop is grievously low. Sport is so absorbing that there is
not even the faintest sign of cricket, that manly and excellent game . . .
(395).
Many Public School Heads had already expressed such views, and Mark Pattison
complained bitterly in 1868 of the `athletic furor' in Oxford where `play
had become the only thought'. What, one wonders, would they have thought of
sport in the second half of the twentieth century ?
Like all of us, Joseph Radley was the child of his time and shared its
limitations, its advantages and disadvantages. But he continued even in old
age resolutely to look ahead. There was, for example, the demand for
organised physical exercises for girls. The boys had always done drill (and
went on doing it in many schools until the outbreak of the second world
war). The girls, then, should have an equivalent. Understandably, some
Friends and parents were dismayed.
The Treasurer informed the Headmaster
that it would not do to let the girls play football or indulge in `any form
of play unsuitable for them'. Joseph Radley agreed and drew up a list of
acceptable exercises (953). He knew, too, from what was happening in England
that the school could not long limit its intake to Quaker children only, and
by� the time he retired there were a small number of non-Friend pupils.
School Life
What, then, was the life of `the family' like in these days ? In some ways
different from that of the school we know almost a hundred years later.
First and foremost it was a small, self-contained community, cut off from
the town of Lisburn. An event such as the triumphal entry into the town of
Richard Wallace on 14th February 1873, the year before Joseph Radley began
his headship, must have passed largely unremarked - it was a `worldly'
event, and one involving a notorious figure at that : had he not been
involved in a costly and discreditable law-suit ? So, too, the opening in
1880 of the Lisnagarvey Intermediate and University School at a cost to the
said Richard Wallace of �1,400 might have been happening in another world,
an event either unknown or of little importance. (It did not
74
become the Wallace High School until August 1942 and was just as small as
Ulster Provincial School, having no more than fifty pupils as late as 1920.)
In this small world, the same few adults looked after the children day after
day, even the Head teaching more or less full-time and fitting in his
administrative tasks as well as he could. All pupils made their own beds,
cleaned the dormitories, washed up, and when old enough gardened. There was
much practising of copper-plate handwriting and of clear enunciation. The
girls received a good deal of instruction on how to run a home, and spent
much leisure time sewing, knitting or making samplers, though as the century
wore on, this last occupation became less common. Food was very plain, but
apparently sufficient. Twice weekly, on Sunday and Thursday mornings, all
pupils attended Meeting for Worship in the Railway Street Meeting House. Yet
there does not seem to have been much systematic Quaker teaching, Murray's
"Quaker Catechism',' odd copies of which were still about in the 1960's,
having by this time fallen into disuse. Some old and distinctive Quaker
customs were quietly disappearing ; there was no Mr. or Miss, it is true,
teachers being universally addressed by their full names (Charles Benington,
never Mr. Benington), but the use of 'thee' and 'thou' was difficult to
maintain. Some older Friends questioned the Head about this change and were
told that Joseph Radley and his wife did their best to encourage it, but met
with little success : girls used 'thou' more than boys (72).
A good account of the pupil's view of things was given by Henrietta Bulla in
her address to the 1937 Jubilee gathering of the Old Scholars' Association.
She had been both scholar and teacher under Joseph Radley. There were, she
recalled, the relays of boys doing their daily stint of eight hundred
pumpings to ensure that the school had enough water for its needs ; the
stray monkey befriended by the school for a few months and looked after by
Tipping, the gardener, and by Joseph Radley, who liked to feed him on
biscuits and rhubarb ; the voyages made each 23rd May on a coal barge to the
Giants' Ring ; and the short-lived school magazine entitled `Natural History
Journal and School Reporter', illustrated and partly written by the gifted
Agnes Scott. A memorable day on Lough Neagh in days before the internal
combustion engine had brought with it the boredom of overfamiliarity,
merited a detailed description
During one severe winter a large part of the Lough was frozen so hard that
thousands of people were drawn thither to enjoy the best skating they had
ever known. A day came when it was announced that the able bodied amongst us
might take our skates and spend the morning on the ice. The boys and girls
were instructed not to venture more than half-a-mile or so from the shore,
but three of the teachers started off for Rams Island, hands interlaced, at
a terrific pace ! Glancing back I saw three black dots following in our
track, and though I am sure the `Head' was not unobservant, he turned a
blind eye on their
flight. We all six reached the island in safety. The `dauntless three' were
Alfred Wallace, Warburton Davidson, and Bob Swain-the latter now a supporter
of the School in the persons of his own children. Several of us missed the
train by which we were to return. The boys hurried back to the Lough, but
the girls were too tired for the long walk ; and the problem was how to put
in the time until 4.30 (it was then about 1.30), when the next train was due
to leave for Lisburn. After one or two attempts to hire a suitable vehicle,
we bargained with a man to take us back by road in a roomy pony-cart which
would hold us all, seven in number. The roads were heavy with deep snow, and
Jehu could only get the horse along by leading it most of the way. When at
last we reached Lisburn we told the man to drive up the avenue, and as he
did so we cheered lustily. The first class rushed to the windows, and out
came Joseph Radley with the question, `And who are you ?' Explaining that we
were some of the unfortunates who had missed the train, and that we had
elected to drive back rather than wait for a later one, we learned that the
afternoon train had just arrived, and the other unfortunates with it ! A
much-needed meal restored our self-respect, and after all it was a jolly, if
rather cold drive !
But it was above all as a community in which intellectual curiosity was
fostered that Henrietta Bulla recalled the school. Others before Joseph
Radley had directed the attention of pupils to the things of the mind, but
they had not stayed long enough for their influence to be lasting. Joseph
Radley did, and in so doing influenced incalculably many who later came to
realise their debt to him as well as many who were never aware of it - that
is in the nature of teaching. He founded the School Literary and Natural
History Society, whose first members, Henrietta Bulla recalled,
comprised the teachers and the older boys and girls ; anyone else wishing to
join was required to set forth his request in writing, the letter was then
considered by the Committee, and if found suitable the applicant was
admitted on payment of the entrance fee of sixpence. No doubt the letters
were all formed on the same model - the writer would express admiration for
the Society, of which he had heard so much, would promise to keep the rules,
and become as useful a member as his capacity allowed ! Meetings were held
once a fortnight ; essays, recitations, debates, reports of the numerous 'ologies,
made a pleasing variety, and lively discussions were frequent. There were at
least two curators to each `department', who invariably began their reports
in the same manner, `The curators of Botany (or Ornithology, or Conchology,
or Entomology) have to report', and then would follow the names of the first
wild flowers noted, the birds observed, or the land and fresh-water shells
collected since last meeting. Geology and Meteorology claimed attention.
Astronomy was popular, and the telescope was in frequent use. The workshops
seldom lacked diligent patrons. Good collections of flowers (`herbaria')
were made by boys and girls, one or two collected and mounted mosses, and at
least one had a collection of grasses. Though my own taste leaned to the
literary rather than to the natural history side, I did make one or two
collections, notably one of land and fresh-water shells, the inhabitants of
which were extracted, as was customary, by some good-natured member `of the
other side of the House'. Before each meeting there was a display of work in
progress - a drawing partly done, a piece of fancywork in hand, such eggs as
were added since last meeting to a collection, in fact any and everything
which had occupied our `own time' since last meeting. Prizes were awarded at
the end of term, or rather at the end of the halfyear, for in those days
holidays in Friends Schools were only given twice a year.
Then there were a number of visitors, important not only for their expert
knowledge of Natural History but also because they brought the outside world
inside the school ; they must have been the first of a succession of
non-Quaker speakers to break into the guarded life on Prospect Hill. John
Henry Davies of Glenmore was so frequent and valued a contributor to the
Society that he was made an honorary member ; Dr. St. George lectured on
`Skulls'; and Mr. S. A. Stewart came from Belfast to speak about Rathlin
Island.
The most enthusiastic curator of Astronomy in early times [Henrietta Bulla
tells us] was Sinton Douglas, who frequently had the telescope out just
about bedtime ! With his help we came to be familiar with the appearance of
the planet Jupiter and his satellites, Saturn and his rings, and many
another `heavenly body'. The whole school was once called out by the
Headmaster on a November evening to witness a thrilling sight, a shower of
meteors numbering hundreds. These happenings, and a transit of Venus, and an
occultation of Jupiter, were all in turn reported on in the Association. At
one period there was a taxidermist on the staff, whose stuffed specimens
were an interest at meetings but a nuisance in the Common-room. Photography
as a pastime was in its infancy ; strange looking pictures from various
`chambers of horrors' were at times on exhibition, but subsequently the
photographers formed a club of their own.
And from the first Joseph Radley persuaded the members of the Society who
had just left school to keep alive the interest of senior pupils in
Literature and Natural History by giving prizes annually to those who
produced good work. In 1877 awards amounting to �1.9.5 were given for
Botanical Collections, Essay Writing, Carpentry, Fancy-work, Gardening,
Geology, Conchology, Drawing, Entomology, and Ornithology. It was this Prize
Fund that led in 1888 to the formal setting up of the Old Scholars'
Association.
The Man and His Pupils
Joseph Radley was from a humble background (`a poor lad myself and wholly
indebted to the Society in a private and public capacity for my valuable
education' (78) ), and had a continuing concern that as many poor children
as possible should go to Lisburn (209). As he had achieved his knowledge and
position through self-discipline and hard work, he tried to teach others to
value these. His own evangelical faith was blessedly free from narrow
censoriousness and selfrighteousness. When he heard Isaac John Bell speak
with apparent lightness of the saving power of Christ, he took him to task
clearly but without acrimony. `As the Head of the school', he explained, `I
must be watchful, and recommend you to think of the failings of James Nayler
and Elias Hicks, and to remember that Tom Payne was the son of a Friend ;
and to read for improvement the lives of Shillitoe and Grellett. Like Job
Scott, we need humility' (367/9). It was his earnest wish that any of his
pupils `who may consider that, in the popular phraseology of the day, `they
may have given their hearts to Jesus', should avoid both spiritual pride and
the cynicism that saps the health and vigour of many Christians and
Christian churches' (58). They are wise words, indicating that while the
labels change according to the phraseology of the day, the qualities they
denote remain the same.
He did not have many rules, but those he did make were to be kept. In his
view, boys should have clear standards of right and wrong, should cultivate
gentlemanly manners and should be neat and upright. Girls, on the other
hand, ought to aim at `primness of character' (699) and `freedom from
vanity' (923). A boarding school best afforded this kind of training (938,
941). It did so by the quality of its staff and by unremitting watchfulness
in matters of `domestic routine' (149). To this end, Joseph Radley fought
the usual battles of the Boarding School Headmaster- against unauthorised
absence condoned by the parent (16, 28, 64, 684), against special privileges
(941), against idleness (625), self-indulgence (569) and general
indiscipline (615). `Arthur cannot have a few days', he told a pleading
parent ; `he ate his rhubarb tart the other day with splendid relish. I
shall be glad to know you can get him to some school where he will be less
prevented from enjoying the sweets of home life' (688). `It is a relief to
us', he reported on another occasion, `that the girls are not returning to
Lisburn' (605). His correspondence gives the clear impression that he
rebuked without fear or favour, if rebuke were needed.
How much Quaker worship meant to his pupils it is impossible to say, though
they� must have sensed their Headmaster's earnestness in the matter. `In my
own part', he told a Friend in 1888, '1 can say that to miss mid-week
meeting is more than missing my daily food' (718). He was just and
charitable, and believed in his pupils as long as he could. Referring to the
charges of the redoubtable Joseph Richardson that during Meeting for Worship
`the boys carried on conversation with the girls by talking on their
fingers', Joseph Radley
said, `I never saw it. . . . As the complaint is anonymous, I shall be in
honour bound to the children until it is substantiated . . .' (357).
Inevitably, there were times when his trust was not justified (345). And in
the face of persistent ill-behaviour he was as non-plussed as any other
teacher. His treatment of one particularly difficult boy may serve as an
example. The youth in question had seemed furtive from the beginning-'for
the first six months he would not look me in the face'. Then there was an
outbreak of pilfering, with the boy, after endless lies, at last admitting
guilt in one case. After a brief respite, he resumed the pilfering, taking a
small money order. Investigation in the town brought to light repeated
visits to the pawnbrokers from whom he got money to spend on the fancy cakes
and biscuits he craved insatiably. Joseph Radley ordered the boy to be
closely guarded, only to have the instruction countermanded by a Committee
member. Pleading and threatening proved equally useless. There were further
visits to the pawnshop and further purchases of cakes. `My mind was made up
that he and I could not stay in the same house a day longer, but Mary Radley
and James S. Woolman entreated one more night'. The next day Joseph Radley
himself took the boy to his home in Ballymena ; he had decided to weather
the Committee's disapproval to the best of his ability -`I was nearly
crushed by such intolerable baseness and hypocritical deceit' (447-452). The
episode is of a kind common enough, the final comment less so. It was made
by a good, kindly man who was both grieved and bewildered by irremediable
dishonesty in someone he knew well.
In 1967, near the end of her long life Winifred Squire, who had known the
school as both pupil and teacher, was persuaded to put pen to paper and
remember her Headmaster. Nee Green and the sole survivor of a tragic boating
disaster on Lough Neagh in 1904, she was the first girl from Prospect Hill
to take a degree. Her words, it is true, repeat some things already said,
but they also add in their last paragraph something that needs saying : they
are a tribute from a fine woman to the memory of a fine man and Schoolmaster
He had a great love of nature and encouraged teacher and pupils in this
purely out-of-school hobby. Botany, geology, astronomy, conchology were
common words in our vocabulary, and I venture to say that very few people in
N. Ireland had as wide a knowledge of its wild flower life as some Ulster
Provincial School pupils had under J.R.'s encouragement. His scripture
lessons must have been good for he himself was so sincerely interested.
Models of both Solomon's and Herod's temples, I remember, and also fragments
of verses never forgotten - the Burial of Moses, another beginning "Go not
up to that land where the pur-r-r ple grapes growing in clusters of beauty .
. ." -with his rolling is not because he was a Scot but because he placed
such emphasis on precise enunciation and encouraged reading aloud and
recitation, partly, because he thought all Friends should learn to speak
clearly just as all clergy must learn.
In addition he had a genuine love of literature and tried to pass that on
to us. He read aloud to us from Quaker biography and history ...
What further memories have I of this rather remarkable man ? - getting up in
the middle of the night to see an eclipse of the moon, a rare solar eclipse
viewed through old photograph plates, glimpses through the telescope (kept
in the front hall) of Jupiter and his moon, Saturn and his ring, the
mountains of the moon, and one memorable Saturday afternoon when some of us
watched the transit of Mercury over the surface of the sun by means of a
reflection from a telescope on a sheet of white paper at the bottom of the
boys' schoolroom ...
. . . Joseph Radley's interests were wide and his vision large. All who were
under him carried away something, unrecognised at the time, which developed
and made of them, not great, but good citizens of wider outlook than they
otherwise would have had.
Joseph Radley was a man of great integrity, `all of a piece', as we
sometimes say. It is a rare quality, and one unerringly noted by scholars.
Official obituaries can in general only hint at it and often ignore it
altogether. The Belfast News-Letter for 7th February 1903, for example,
wrote as follows
Joseph Radley influenced the important changes that took place in opening
the school to others than those belonging to the Society of Friends, for
whose special benefit it had originally been established. The rigid
exclusiveness that characterised the Society in bygone years having yielded
to more breadth of view, the institution has since been the happy and
guarded home of many boys and girls of various denominations, who have been
educated to mutual advantage in mixed classes, of which system Mr. Radlev
was a strong advocate long before it became as general as it is now....
The Old Scholars' President, William A. Green, was more personal
(Presidential address 1902-3)
Tonight a note of sadness mingles with our pleasure, as we remember the
sympathetic voice that is now silent for ever, and the friendly hand that we
shall grasp no more ; but the memory of our old friend, Joseph Radley, whom
in our childish days we revered, and for whom love and respect have grown as
years pass by, will ever be green in the hearts of those who knew him, and
whose privilege it was to sit beneath his kindly rule and learn from his
example of his daily life and conversation the obligations of a Christian
and a gentleman.
The words are in one way specially fitting ; they recognise Joseph
Radley's achievements in phrases taken directly from the Victorian
high thinking and high living which, though they were soon to be called into
serious question, he believed in and practised.
From another point of view, the sentences were trite enough. It is better to
take leave of J.R. (as he was always called), remembered by one of his
pupils who was himself a rugged individualist. He gives a perhaps
exaggeratedly vivid view of the school -that was how he saw life. But when
he comes to recall his Headmaster, T. Bulmer Hobson finds the right words
In my day there was much reading from the Bible and many Moody and Sankey
hymns. There was a free and easy atmosphere but not many lessons were
interesting ... English literature was making us learn by heart a number of
lines . . . sometimes sixty. The teachers were a poor lot. Charles Benington
was the only good one. But in Joseph Radley's day the school was like home.
He was a bit slack, and we took advantage of him, and he knew we took
advantage of him, but we all loved him.
When Joseph Radley retired in 1899 he was a very tired man.
The death of his son, though borne with fortitude, taxed him greatly. A year or two earlier
he had suffered a serious breakdown in health but, after a long rest and
change, had resumed his work at the school. His old vigour and even his
mental grasp of situations had largely gone, and pupils were grieved to see
him at times shuffling with difficulty about the school which owed its
buildings and reputation to his faith and vision. He had another and yet
more total breakdown, and a month later retired to Pardshaw, his wife's
home. He took with him, it seems, many papers about the school's history,
but tradition has it (through John Douglas who said that the information
came from Mary Waterfall) that he worried so much about some aspects of them
and of his own headship, that his wife destroyed many of them. In 1902, he
had a stroke and began to suffer from paralysis. Honourably, the School
Committee had provided him with a small pension. He did not live long to
enjoy it. A visitor to Pardshaw burial ground, which lies at the foot of the
splendid clean-swept Cumberland fells, may see his plain grave-stone bounded
on one side by the high wall and on the other by the old Meeting House. Its
simple inscription reads
JOSEPH RADLEY
DIED AT PARDSHAW
1st OF SECOND MONTH
1903 AGED 67 YEARS
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